


the creation of monsters

by starbirthed



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anbu Uchiha Sasuke, Anbu Uzumaki Naruto, Angst, Drama, Emotional Manipulation, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, also a darker take but not a horrible take ? hopefully, also konoha village will need to do BETTEr, danzou is literally the worst, for all the wrong reasons, honestly more tags to be added once i know what the fuck is up kyle, honestly truly just wanted to write a fic where, naruto and sasuke deserved better, naruto and sasuke get taken in by anbu, this won't be long either, we'll see
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-17 16:22:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16099334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starbirthed/pseuds/starbirthed
Summary: Monsters are not born, they are molded and shaped and formed by the hands of their maker and the input of the world. The most important ingredient, however, is thirst.  Have your monster thirst for something / crave it without ceasing / and deny it over and over until it takes shape and form and breath.     And to control that monster , you must feed it the very thing it craves. Do that , and you have made beast - tamed.AU where Naruto and Sasuke are taken in by Danzou, trained under his brutal tutelage to become his weapons. They believe in his truths, in his promises for recognition and power--to become a hero / to become an avenger. But after years of being kept in the dark, the secrets come out of the shadows and Naruto and Sasuke, monsters grown under careful watch, break out and leave in search for their own truth, their own paths, and their own retribution. For there is hell to pay, and the first payment is due in Konoha.





	1. starvation

Monsters are created from many things—but the most powerful ingredient to birth a monster is willful neglect. Starve it of love. Put it into a prison. Shroud it in darkness. Bathe it in doubt. Spoon feed it words of malice and intent, so they ingest it into their stomach and boil it down to their bones. _Monster. Freak. Demon. Murderer._ Feed them this diet for days for months for _years_ and then sit back and _forget_. Forget, your own horrific recipe, as your monster grows into the terrifying creature you feared it would.

But don’t be surprised when the monster sinks its fangs into your jugular and rips you apart.

You have created it, after all.

And monsters only wish to give back what they were raised with in all their capacity.

 

Konoha’s roots are in the land of fire, but to Naruto the village feels more like the land of ice. Everyone around him is cold. He steps out into the world and suddenly he’s encased in ice. With bone chilling indifference and exclusion his skin raises goosebumps. The villager’s stares are dead, and cold, and he becomes a _ghost_. So he’d do anything to become human. He’d kick up a fuss. He’d deface a statue. He’d challenge the most popular kid in class, if only it captured someone’s attention. If only it meant that for once, someone would look at him and not through him.

And for the small moments it happens, he feels tethered. The voice in his head that tells him to set everything on fire for making him feel small and dead quiets. He no longer feels as if the blood underneath his skin will overflow with the rage and hate he locks away with playful smiles and fake laughter.

Then there are moments where even those small acts of quiet rebellion—speak to me, talk to me, call my name—do not work. Where he knocks on the door and the lights are on but no one comes to let him in. In those moments he screams on secluded hill tops on moonless nights until his throat goes raw. He cries until he feels hollowed. As if anything more could be scooped out of his shell.

Naruto Uzumaki is 10 years old and does not know of the word love. But hate, hate is a word he knows so intimately the word is tattooed on his tongue.

He swallows it whole, and it burns, but the hollowness inside him never disintegrates. 

 

When he meets Sasuke Uchiha he’s confused. He’s confused because he sees someone like him, with no parents and no family to call his home— _alone, alone, he’s like me_. And at the same time they’re not the similar. While derision and scorn are printed on Naruto’s back, adoration and praise are stamped on Sasuke’s. He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand how they can be so similar yet so different.

How one orphan can garner love and another orphan is deemed unworthy of even a glance.

He hates him—he thinks. He hates him for what he has. Hate is so easy to know, after all. Because it’s all he’s _ever_ known. And he wants his attention, so he does anything and everything to get it. For the orphan boy who’s surrounded with love to look his way. And when he does, when Sasuke’s fingers are curled into the fabric of his shirt and Iruka is standing above them, moderating the fight, he’s shocked. Shocked because the boy surrounded with love holds the same hate in his eyes as the villagers.

This time, the hate is not directed at him. No, the hate is far away. It’s tracking a ghost that no longer exists in this world, Naruto thinks.

And in that moment, he doesn’t hate Sasuke anymore.

He gets it. Because when he looks in the mirror he sees that same hate too. He wonders where Sasuke’s hate is directed at. He wonders if the hate keeps him up at night. He wonders how someone surrounded by people could look so cold.

Sasuke Uchiha was a ghost, but not because people made him that way.

 _A monster,_ Naruto thinks. _This boy could become a monster._

When he goes home, he’s comforted by the thought that perhaps he’s not the only monster residing within this village.

 

Danzou approaches Naruto when he’s eleven. Naruto has failed the genin exam four times now. He’s dead last and the kids don’t hesitate to remind him of his worth—or lack thereof. He sits on the swing, watching the children he goofed around with surrounded by their parents, congratulating them on a job well done. _You’ve done it. You’ve proved your worth. You’re valuable to this village!_

Crack. Crack. Crack. He can feel it. The ebbing of pain, the soft yet violent curl in his stomach that makes him want to hurl. To crawl into his own skin and wither away. He clutches onto the swing set, eyes downcast. He wants to leave but he also _can’t_ leave. He could never turn away from the picturesque beauty of familial love.

That’s when Danzou appears. It is quiet and with intent. A hand touches his shoulder and when Naruto glances up, there he stands. His smile is warm, his posture inviting.

“Naruto Uzumaki, is it?”

It’s the first time he’s heard his name uttered with such soft wonder. As if Danzou was so incredibly pleased to stumble upon his existence. It’s the first time someone’s ever said his name, directly, to his face without ire or scorn.

Naruto perks up, “You know my name?” the ache dulls.

Danzou smiles. It’s the first time anyone’s ever done that either. “Of course I do. I remember and know everything that holds value—that is special. And you, Naruto Uzumaki, are just that.”

His heart breaks. Breaks in the way when does when the sun touches the horizon and you see the world’s natural beauty in awe, and wonder, and pure display. Naruto’s eyes mirror the sun. His smile gives birth to a new universe. He is captivated, and he is caught.

And Danzou smiles, but his eyes are cold. Narrowed in satisfaction that his bait was received and the child was won. For the easiest way to catch a monster is to feed it fabricated love.

“I see great potential in you, Naruto Uzumaki.” He says his name with such purpose, such pride. Naruto sits up, his heart swells. He’s caught. He’s captivated. “I can make you great. I can give you all the power you seek to gain the recognition you rightfully deserve. With me, this village will no longer turn its back on you. No—the village will look at you head on, with adoration and love. I can make you a _hero_.”

He stretches out his hand. The fabrication of warmth etches into the lines of his thin smile. His eyes, Naruto cannot see, are stained with schemes.

Naruto stares at his hand, and then takes it.

 

A special project, that’s what Danzou tells him. It’s been in the works for years now but Danzou wanted to wait until Naruto was of age to approach him—to commence it. Naruto’s a very important piece to the puzzle, Danzou assures him. For only Naruto can accomplish the greatest feat Danzou has in store for him, because only _Naruto_ carries power within him no one else in the village can even dare to imagine.

Naruto has a bijuu sealed within him. Naruto is _special_.

“A bijuu,” he says the name on his tongue and although the word is foreign, his heart knows—his mind remembers all the nights he laid awake because a voice in his head would not leave him alone.

The voice fed his demons. Fed his fears. Fed his whimpers. The voice told him he was forgotten and discarded—that he was unwanted and unloved. That hate would keep him going, and that love was not written in the stars or his fate. Burn _everything_ , the voice whispered clean in his ear behind iron gates, while he stood ankle deep in murky water.

_Burn everything and let me free._

“That’s what it is,” he says more to himself than Danzou. Danzou only raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t directly address his comment.

“The village sealed it inside of you when you were a baby. You became the container of one of the world’s most powerful and dangerous spirits—the ninetails fox.”

The discovery takes a few minutes to process. They sit heavy on his shoulders and the implications do not hit, at first. Then they do and they become granite, sharpened, sinking into his skin and hitting deep within his bones. Naruto is rash and he is impulsive but he is not stupid. Two and two comes together rather quickly. The wires that connect spark a fury he did not know resided so deep within his belly. The villagers signed him to a fate he could not control—and _condemned him_ for the very same actions they placed upon him.

Naruto sees red. It pools into his vison and corrodes every cell in his body.

“Why—why did they—how _could_ they do that?”

“Because the Leaf Village is imperfect, and governed by bodies who are careless and believe shrouding the truth with lies will change those lies into reality. But they don’t. They’ve created bodies broken by a system that is too _lenient_ and quick to turn a blind eye to the mess it willingly creates. Hence, why I wish to change the system—the very system that turned its back on you, on the people like you. _Naruto Uzumaki_ ,” there it is again—the way he says his name, the power and purpose he commands into those syllables. It kills off some of the red in his vision, in his blood.  “You have the power to change this world, and I’m going to help you do it.”

Without hesitation, Naruto shakes away the tears that pooled in the corner of his eyes. “Train me. Teach me everything.” His voice is solid. His shoulders are squared. Danzou beams, and he snaps his fingers. Three masked figures appear. One wears a dog mask, the other a lion mask, and finally in the middle and shorter than the others, stands an ANBU wearing a raven’s mask. Naruto focuses in on the one in the middle. They _feel_ familiar, their energy and aura touches something deep that he can’t quite explain.

Danzou switches his staff over to his other hand, “I’m overjoyed you wish to see this through with me. As I said, for this dream of ours to come true, there are many special parts to make sure its execution is flawless.” He reaches out and places a hand upon the shoulder of the ANBU in the middle. “Therefore, I’d like to introduce you to your new partner. If you will, Raven.”

Raven takes off their mask, slowly—deliberately. Naruto’s breath catches in his throat but not from surprise. No, rather, he knew deep down he’d be met with those same cold eyes dotted with a hatred aimed at someone not in this world. Sasuke Uchiha stands before him, dawned in ANBU attire.

His eyes bore into Naruto’s and his knees go weak.

He realizes he’s never held anyone’s direct gaze before. It’s powerful, and all consuming.

Sasuke flicks his gaze to the hand on his shoulder. Naruto watches as he shrugs it off and Danzou pays it no mind. The only hint of irritation comes from the way his lips twitch quietly at the corners.

“You picked Naruto Uzumaki?”

The way he says his name is different too. There’s no indifference but there’s also no excitement, no enthrall, only silent questioning and perhaps—disbelief, tinged with intrigue. Naruto stands up a little bit taller.

“Danzou said he’ll make me a _hero_ ,” he boasts, “He’s gonna help me change the world—because I’m special!” he loves that word and the way it sounds in the hollows of his mouth with the word _I’m_. “What’s he gonna do with you, huh?” he has no doubts it’s because Sasuke’s a genius. Everyone who knows Sasuke automatically ties the word _prodigy_ to his name. They are symbiotic, two parts of the same whole.

Sasuke the genius. Naruto the dead last.

Sasuke looks at him but this time he’s not looking _at_ him. He’s faraway again. Naruto doesn’t know where he goes when he gets that look in his eyes. But he wonders, briefly, if he expects someone to follow him. To pull him back.

When he speaks, chills touch Naruto’s spine, “He’ll make me an avenger.”

Danzou smiles. Naruto ingests his words to the pit of his stomach. They stay there, ruminating, taking weight and shape. The voice inside him chuckles. _You have stumbled upon a fellow monster, indeed_ it whispers.

The comfort Naruto felt before fluctuates.

 

There are many ways to create bonds. Hardwork, years of experience, mutual interests, and general attraction are one of the more common routes bonds can take. But what they didn’t teach in the academy is that bonds can be made the same way monsters are fashioned. Through torture and bloodshed, through the catatonic detonation of emotions followed by the haphazard fastening of feelings, sewn back together with feeble string and needle. Bonds can be made over broken glass, with shards embedded into each pulsing root.

Bonds are powerful, no matter what twisted shape they form.

Naruto and Sasuke form a special bond. The twin devils—they’re nicknamed. Both having passed Danzou’s _test_ at the age of 12. Marked and branded with a special ANBU tattoo on their right shoulder by 13.

The Fox and the Raven they’re hailed. Creatures starved of love, painted fables and stories by loose tongues and silver lips—Danzou smiles as he looks upon his greatest creation, his beautiful weapons. The boy starved for love and the boy hungry for revenge. He could feed them all that, and more, and they would eat out of the palm of his hands.

They would kill for him. Shatter foundations for him. Destroy empires for him.

 _Beautiful,_ he thinks as he watches Naruto and Sasuke fight in perfect synchronicity—eliminating their fellow ANBU with ease. They drop to his side, kneeling in presentable fashion. There is blood dripping from their blades as they face forward, masked eyes trained on him in preparation for his next command. His monsters are perfect.  _Yes,_  a _bsolutely beautiful._


	2. demands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once your tongue has tasted what you were denied / you can never forget its taste. And you can never stop hunting for it.

He’s grown disturbingly comfortable with the sight of his own blood over the past six months. Each breath Naruto takes is heavy and broken and beaten. His jaw is cracked. His left cheek is swollen. Blood slips through the fabric of his training suit, black and red and ripped to ribbons. He presses a hand to his left side and winces. _Aw fuck_ , those ribs are _definitely_ broken.

The most frustrating part of it all is how Sasuke stands utterly unbothered. His ANBU masks rests precisely on his face while Naruto’s Fox mask is on the floor by his feet. Sasuke, in this moment, is the raven that soars above the fox who is destined to tread on the ground. While the scavenger circles above, untouched, unless it wills itself to become touched.

Suddenly, inferiority seeps into every inch of his wounds. It burns. It aches. It poisons. Not for the first time, does Naruto feel outdone and outclass by the superior _Sasuke Uchiha_. Who can take him down in less than thirty minutes and not even appear out of breath.

Infuriating—utterly and maddeningly _infuriating._

“Well done, Sasuke.” Danzou’s words are honey coated and flowery. His good eye is upturned in praise and adoration for Sasuke.

Sasuke stands before Naruto with a few scratches and in seemingly better condition than him. That same eye then turns to Naruto, and it is less bright—less pleased. Inferiority feeds into his blood and turns it to poison. His wounds are now minor to the heat of shame scorching his body. “I am disappointed in _you_ , Fox.”

Physical wounds cut deep, and are visible, and leave their sting down to your bones.

But _failure_ is the most painful wound one can bear. It never leaves you. You never forget its acrid taste on your tongue or the way someone’s words ring hollow in your ears. Naruto watches as Danzou turns his back and disappears out of the training room and down the hall with his escorts. His words continue to cut and cut, chip away and chip away, at Naruto’s spine as Danzou disappears into darkness.

Sasuke remains still as a statue, peering down at him through crooked slits—black beady eyes that match too well with his persona.

Naruto thinks about how Danzou said Sasuke’s name with ease, but Naruto’s did not fall from the same tongue at all.

Through gritted teeth Narutoo stumbles to stand at his full height, “ _Again_.” He demands (he does not beg, he will _not_ beg), with every cell in his body craving a second chance.

Sasuke scoffs, “You haven’t won the first four times. You really want to make it six?”

“I said _again_ , Raven.” He takes out a kunai, inhales sharply through the acute bite of pain that dances up his side, and charges.

Sasuke defeats him again. Six times fought. Six times lost.   

 

They say to beat thy enemy, you must know thy enemy. Naruto doesn’t know when he began to view Sasuke as an enemy. Over the six months of his time under Danzou’s training he viewed Sasuke as an obstacle to his prize—the attention and admiration of Danzou. He can never forget the day Danzou approached him at the academy. He was the sun appearing from the clouds after brutalizing storms. And Naruto ached to bask in its glow, to embrace the heat, to drown in the warmth after years of being encased in ice.

Sasuke is a _favorite_. It’s written in every way that Danzou interacts with Sasuke. Naruto can’t give any proper names to the way his master looks at Sasuke. But, Naruto imagines it must be in the same way he stares at his plants while he watches them grow. With such fondness and adoration for their progress under his careful eye. Danzou, on the other hand, is less soft. More stern, and his warmth comes in spades.

He wants what Sasuke has. That’s really nothing new.

So Naruto trains, hard. Harder than he ever has at the academy. Long nights bleed into longer days. He meets up with fellow ANBU members and asks them to fight him. To teach them what he knows and to show him their skills.  He’s not successful. They’re older and hardened and more cynical. His light—the need to succeed, the genuine earnestness—cannot melt thousand years of ice and metal. He trains on his own then.

He becomes adept at the art of studying people, of watching.  Their movements and hand sign, he takes them all to memory. Then, in the quiet and in the hush of night he practices. Over and over again until one clone becomes two clones, becomes seven clones, becomes a hundred clones. He works his body to the bone then says _I am not finished until my bones become ground into ash._ And even then, he continues. For out of ashes come phoenixes and Naruto Uzumaki refuses to be anything but rebirth.

He always watching Sasuke. His eyes . In every step he takes, in the way he carries himself while with Danzou. Danzou showers him with praises and admiration but Sasuke is blank. He does not bend or break or snap. He does not heel, and if he does so it is for show not for allegiance—Naruto had noted that tick _very_ well.

Sasuke is different in the way he operates in this underworld. He was invited, but he does not bend at the hand and foot of Danzou. No, he is blank and impassive but his eyes are always searching outwards. This is _temporary_ for him, Naruto can see that much in the way he continues to exist like a ghost untethered to any real spot. He’ll leave when he’s ready. Leave when he’s done. And leave without ever looking back.

 _I don’t like that_ , he thinks, and goes after Sasuke as he leaves the training grounds for the night.

 

“I wanna train with you.” Naruto says, confidence in his voice—and a smile behind his mask.

Sasuke doesn’t spare him the time of day.

“I _said_ ,” its night again—though in this place where the sun does not kiss the ground, night is always lurking. Sasuke is practicing his fire jutsu. The arena is filled with fire and smoke. Ashes linger in Naruto’s mouth as he watches, perched on a rock overlooking the arena. He jumps down into the circle after the flames dissipate. He tries again, with the same approach but hopefully with more _feeling_. “I wanna train with you. And I’m not taking no for an answer!”

This time, Sasuke doesn’t leave immediately. Naruto takes that as a pretty good sign. Silence stretches between them for what seems to be hours until Sasuke speaks. “I’m not indulging you.”

Naruto takes this in stride, “Why not? We spar all the time anyways—Danzou-sama is always making us fight each other. It makes sense that we can at least train together too.”

“I don’t care for Danzou’s methods, nor your reasoning.” Sasuke turns on his heel, heading for the entry way into the hall when he stops. He looks over his shoulder and Naruto can catch a glint of black eyes peeking through the slit. “You’re not up to par with me. Training with you would be a waste.”

He leaves, and behind him is a gaping hole in Naruto’s stomach. But he’s still standing. Still smiling behind his mask.

He’s heard worst.

 

Naruto does not know the meaning of the word quit. Perseverance is stamped on his tongue. His own personal language. He finds Sasuke again and again and always asks, always demands, to be trained with. Every time Sasuke ignores him. Or cuts him down. Or makes him feel small but Naruto refuses to give up. He has to get this. He has to work with him so he can learn his secrets. How to be so incredibly loved but run away. How to be so sought after but not even take a glance back at those who seek you. Naruto must know his secrets because he cannot comprehend how someone could have it all but not even _care_.

When you have nothing you care far, far too much.

 

Tonight, Danzou orders them to run a simulation.  It’s to prepare them for the field, he reminds them. An ANBU is a perfect soldier. They have every situation simulated and prepared to run at a moment’s notice. They are flexible which makes them deadly. They must learn flexibility, adaptability, and stealth—and to do that, they must be thrown into the very same environments.

Here they will learn if they can thrive or if they are weeds meant to be chopped.

Naruto is nervous, and excited, and on the verge of throwing up. He’s electric energy. A bundle of nerves popping up. He jostles back and forth on his feet. The balconies are filled with other ANBU agents. Naruto can feel their stares even through the masks. He knows they’re being sized up and judged. Watched and scrutinized. Everyone is waiting for them to fail. Or really, waiting for Naruto to fail and for Sasuke to make a mistake—if that was even possible.

Naruto casts a glance to his partner who stands rock solid beside him as Danzou goes over the mechanics of the simulation. They would be ambushing a two-man unit from wave country whose strengths involve highly skilled combination moves and evasion tactics. Naruto and Sasuke must retrieve the stolen scroll containing political secrets from their home base, Konoha. If either of them dies or fails to retrieve the scroll, they fail. The simulation will be real time. They will be facing against seasoned ANBU to test their merit.

Naruto, not for the first time in his life, is fearful and nervous but when Danzou asks if they are ready to fight he is _pure_ bravado. “Yes! Absolutely, Danzou-sama!” he crosses an arm over his chest, the ANBU salute and stands tall and proud and does not pay notice to the way his voice almost shakes.

He refuses to let it, though. For his sake, mostly.

Sasuke says nothing.

They receive no other information given as ANBU must work with little to gain _riches_ Danzou advises them.

“You will have one hour to finish the simulation. Fight hard. Survive.” He shifts his eye from Sasuke then to Naruto. “Show me all that you have. Or die trying.” His words are heavy, with lead and weight that Naruto feels deep in his gut. He nods. Determined and resolute. Danzou says nothing for a few moments before banging his staff on the floor.

“Begin.”

In seconds, Danzou is gone and the boys are transported to a forest. Naruto is quickly taken in by his surroundings. By the vast height of the trees. The smell of earth on his feet. And eyes, he can still clearly see every white animal mask of an ANBU staring at them. He swallows. Danzou was always emphasized how no one is ever alone. Eyes are always watching them, tearing them apart.

“Hey, Raven. We should—” before Naruto can finish Sasuke’s gone. He curses and follows after them. They jump and run through trees with Naruto hot on their heels. They find the enemy camp shortly. Both stop to assess the situation. Naruto feels irritation clawing at his skin when he barks, “We should be working together, asswipe.”

“No.” Sasuke leaps into the fray and starts his attack. Naruto is every sense of the word pissed and also appalled that the resident genius and apparent _pride_ of the village was so… reckless. Then again, he was no better. Jumping into the fight as Sasuke engaged in combat with the two-man unit.

As predicted, they were smart and tricky—absolutely vile to the core with their methods.  They held nothing back on their assault, nor did their targets lower any bars when retaliating. Every attack the men makes is to kill—that is what keeps Naruto focused. In the present and now as he dodges attacks and scans the campground for an opening to search for the scroll.

The men used tricks Naruto had never seen before. They moved through water puddles. Attacking when neither boy expected it. Each slash of a kunai made Naruto’s body sing with pain. They fight individually. Sasuke has one up in the trees while Naruto fights on the ground. It’s hard. His arms shake every time he clashes blades. He curses himself for not working on his upper body more when he’s kicked in the chest, knocked to the ground with the stars hanging above his head.

He moves in time to miss the blade running right through his skull.

 _Weak._ The voice in his head mocks him. He silences it with the sound of blades clashing, of feed hitting the ground of grunts of pain and slashes of air. For a while, Naruto feels hopeless. This man is stronger and more trained. He’s had more wears of war to harden his blows and sharpen his hits. Naruto is only 13 and he does not know war—and is not shaped by war. But he has seen byproducts of war come and go, and he has been called _monster_ yet his fangs cannot rip flesh apart nor fangs pick at bones.

 _Monster. Monster._ How could he be seen as such when he feels so weak?

He’s hiding behind a tree far from the campsite now. He can’t hear Sasuke’s battle but he can only assume he’s on the verge of winning, if not having already won already. Frustration pools in his gut at the prospect. If he doesn’t win this he’ll disappoint Danzou again. Danzou who uttered his name with adoration and said he was destined for heroism. For greatness. For something bigger than himself. He uttered words to him no one else dared to conjure.

He wanted his approval.

He wanted him to say his name again.

Not _Fox_ but _Naruto Uzumaki._

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” the man taunts. He’s close—much closer than Naruto anticipated. His heart rate spikes. His palms begin to sweat. “Come out, beast! Don't you wanna play? Get mad! Bring out ya little demon friend ! Honestly, I have no idea why Danzou would choose to bring a wild _mutt_ like you into our elite ranks—but I’ll show him a mutt is _still_ a mutt no matter how much you try and train it.”

Heat bubbles. Slowly, quietly, but it’s roaring loudly in his ears. He sees red. He’s used to taunts. To words coated in derision and scorn. His natural defense is to tune it out. To ignore. To continue smiling through the insults but tonight—not tonight. He does not want to deflect and repress. He wants to feel, that surge, and have it power him. Because he’s sick and tired of being seen as _less and less and lesser_. The rage, it roars, but it doesn’t peak. Not yet. But he’s angry enough to set his counter attack into motion.

He summons four shadow clones, to start. He sends one in for a front attack—a diversion. So Naruto can lay his trap. Implanting bombs and coating particular spots with glue. He may not be strong, or good with academics but Naruto is clever and forward thinking. If he cannot overpower, he will overcome.

His plan works. It’s shoddy at best and he only manages to succeed by the skin of his teeth. But at the last second, as his final clone was sent as a diversion to lure in his attacker, the ANBU fell into Naruto’s trap—a huge pitfall covered by dirt. Inside the pitfall are explosives, rigged to set off and leave minor injuries. Danzou has given them orders to kill but Naruto didn’t have the stomach for that—yet.

“Hehe, loser!” he throws up a peace sign and jumps over the pitfall. He doesn’t stay behind to hear the curses or the sounds of rigged bombs going off. He’s already making way for the campground. Heart pumping, adrenaline burning. He doesn’t notice how his nails are sharper or his fangs are more prominent.

He gets the campsite soon after. There’s no sight of Sasuke, at first. And for a minute Naruto feels elation over having bested Sasuke at something. His elation quickly deflates when Sasuke appears. His mask is crooked, not off completely. His breath is labored and Naruto can smell blood on him. Metallic, tangy, deep enough he can taste it.

“You look like shit.” He teases.

“You don’t look any better,” Sasuke retorts.

And he doesn’t. That battle wore Naruto down to the bone and then some. He’s scraped all over and definitely has a few broken bones. But he won. He _won_. Winning was all that mattered. All he cared about. All he could focus on. He’s ready to start teasing him again when he smells it. Something off and wrong. Another body that shouldn’t _be_ there.

Suddenly, the very same ninja Sasuke swore to have defeated is back. He’s behind Sasuke ready to strike. Sasuke’s body is worn and slow and his reaction time suffers. Naruto can see it. If he’s not quick—he’ll die. Danzou’s words echo in his mind from the first day of training.

_You are ANBU. Your loyalty is to me first, the village second, yourself third, and your comrades last._

It was eat or be eaten. Kill or be killed. There was no loyalty in the wild unless it was to the King. Every other animal was fodder and stepping stools. You work together for convenience, not by blood or tied morality. You work together for the mission, the larger picture, the greater good. Bonds do not exist unless they are temporary. They are destroyed when they are no longer deemed fit for success.

Bonds do not exist.

And there was no bond connecting him and Sasuke.

Yet he feels a tug. Something in his chest. Not from the monster residing with him or the world around him but inside—deep. That says _you must save this person. You must make sure he lives._

His body moves on his own. He pushes Sasuke out of the way just in time to dodge the attack. Then he retaliates, sweeping his leg out to trip their attacker. Sasuke lies on the floor, winded and slowed—breathing heavily. He must have been poisoned, or had more trouble than he led on to be in such a state. Naruto could still fight. He had energy near limitless pouring through him, or so he believed. He can fight and he would fight.

Eyes—he felt eyes burning into every fiber of his skin as he makes not so quick but still _work_ on the ninja. They’re out cold, leaving two battered and bruised teens in their wake. Naruto exhales the breath he didn’t know he was holding.

When he turns, Sasuke’s looking at him with wide eyes. His mask is gone. Probably from the blow. It’s the first time in months Naruto has seen his face. There’s something bare there, and broken. Haunted and hollowed but there’s still a pulse, a tether of humanity—a string to be pulled.

Naruto doesn’t know why, but he takes off his mask too. It drops to the floor by his feet. And he reaches out, to extend a hand.

To create a bond, he does not know he’s making.

“Come on, bastard. You gonna lay down there all day collecting dirt?”

Sasuke stares at his hand for a long time. Naruto’s heart rate spikes. Suddenly he’s nervous. Sasuke has no means to accept his hand. To see his offer as fruitful. His fingers twitch when Sasuke moves his hand. He half expects his gesture to be knocked away to the side.

But Sasuke takes it. Takes his hand. And his features steel, but they do not wash away whatever it was going on his mind.

“Idiot. You talk too much.”

They finish the mission together. Sasuke finds the scroll by pure deduction. It was stowed away in a seal hidden within a book. Naruto was the one who cracked the sealing. Figuring out which hand signs would undo the bind.

They are the first team in ANBU history to finish the mission as a unit.

Danzou, from the shadows, watches with mild distaste.

 

“You shouldn’t have saved me.”

“Shut up.”

 

Afterwards Naruto finds Sasuke recovered, bandaged, and performing his hand signs. He asks again if he can train, mostly to push the envelope. He doesn’t expect Sasuke to say yes. But he doesn’t expect him to say nothing and _accept_ either. Naruto eyes widen as Sasuke removes his mask and places it behind his head.

“Gonna stand there all night, dumbass?”

He would have because he’s frozen to the spot—absolutely _dumbfounded_ by the turn of events. But he’s also pleased, so very pleased that his cheeks warm and he undoes the messy knot of his mask until it falls away to the ground before him. He jumps down from his ledge and joins Sasuke in his nightly ritual.

He feels, for the first time since he came here, truly content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone who has read , left kudos , made bookmarks , and commented. sorry this chapter is later in the game than anticipated. the flow of the story stopped and started multiple times as i wrote this chapter but i'm satisfied with how i came out. narrative-wise , it takes place before the end chunk of the last chapter where naruto and sasuke are now a unit. so this is the first few months naruto begins training and he's struggling because he's not making as far of gains as sasuke is. he wants danzou's approval and he knows sasuke gets it easily , so he figures he can learn from sasuke and if he trains with him , he can maybe take some secrets or skills. he doesn't hate sasuke , not really. because he recognizes sasuke's been turned into a monster as well - just in a different way. 
> 
> the chapter took a small , different direction than i had planned but i liked how it turned out. i hope you all do too. also happy bday nardo u funky lil shinobi you :^)

**Author's Note:**

> i recently finished reading the naruto manga for the first time and so , so many plot ideas have been hitting me. this was the first one to take precedence ! a rather wild idea and i have no idea how it's gonna work but i like it so far. i like how it ends and i have an idea in mind and wowowo. a darker take i just ? truthfully with the way konoha handled the situation it was so easy for the wrong person to just step in and say "yo naruto you want this? i gotchu" and he'd take it. same with sasuke. but ya know it be like that sometimes. anyways ! hope this was alright over all. it's a little different from my usual style and a tad disjointed but i think the point gets across, hopefully? feedback would be wonderful ! thank you !


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